SERPENTS, GOOD AND BAD
Snakes (Ophidia) are the newest and most flourishing branch on the
reptilian family tree, whose trunk and lower limbs are dead or dying.
They differ from lizards mainly in their elongated and limbless form
(which, however, had been foreshadowed by certain lizards) and more
particularly in the formation of the mouth. Instead of a solid union of
the bones of the skull, many of the bones, especially about the mouth,
are connected by an elastic ligament, allowing the snakes to open their
mouths widely enough to swallow larger prey than otherwise would be
possible. The palatal bones, as well as the jaws, bear small, solid,
recurved and pointed teeth, replaced by others from the same root pulp
when lost; they have little chewing power, but are useful to seize and
hold food which is then slowly swallowed by the snake gradually working
its jaws ahead and over the object, until the muscles of the throat can
grip it and slowly work it downward into the tubelike stomach. Serpents
strive to turn their prey and swallow it headfirst.
The tongue in all serpents is a slender, extensible organ, forked at
the tip, usually black, and always seen protruded and waving about when
a snake is disturbed. Uninformed people call it a "stinger," but it is
merely the animal's tongue and used as such. It serves the additional
purpose of an instrument of investigation, the serpent informing
itself by touching with its tongue as to the nature of many things
with which it comes in contact. It has, however, no stinging or other
harmful purpose or power whatever. A rattlesnake's tongue would harm
you no more than one of the little love licks that you get from your
favorite puppy.
The eyes, which may be rudimentary in the burrowing species, or large
in those of nocturnal habits, have no eyelids, and are covered with
a transparent film of skin that is sloughed off whenever the skin is
shed, which happens frequently in young, growing individuals, but only
annually in adults, as a rule; and for a day or two snakes are blinded
by the loosening of this covering. No snake has ear openings, and their
hearing is dull. The sense of smell, however, is well developed, and
it is probable that these animals obtain much food by its aid, even
following a trail by the nose.
Serpents travel on their bellies, moving their bodies in lateral
undulations, and often running with amazing swiftness. Every pair of
ribs is connected at their lower ends with one of the large abdominal
scales, or "scutes," and it is generally believed that the creature
moves by the pressure and pushing of these scutes and rib points on
the ground; but Boulenger, a leading authority, thinks that their
importance has been somewhat exaggerated, although of undoubted use for
the purpose of climbing, at which some species are remarkably adept.
Some snakes lay eggs with a tough, parchmentlike shell; others retain
them within the body until the young are fully developed.
Snakes do not migrate nor wander far from their birthplace in search of
food. Desert dwellers burrow under the sand for protection from the
heat, and go abroad at night, as is the habit of many snakes. In the
colder climates the serpents hibernate, collecting in companies tangled
together like a ball in some animal's burrow, or in a den among the
rocks, the hardier ones occasionally appearing on warm days in winter.
When they come out in spring they are likely to make their way to wet
lowlands, in search of frogs, toads and mice.
The order is divided into nine families, which will now be considered
in the order arranged by G. A. Boulenger of the Zoölogical Society
of London. The first four families are small, wormlike, burrowing
creatures, with a large number of species distributed in warm countries
throughout the world, and regarded as relics of an ancient type. The
beautiful coral snake of South America, which grows to a yard in length
and is only partly subterranean in habit, leads from these to the great
family of boas and pythons (Boidæ) which contains the biggest serpents
that exist, or so far as we know, ever have existed. The members
of this family have vestiges of pelvis and hind limbs, appearing
externally as clawlike spurs. The Boidæ comprise sixty or seventy
species and the range of the family is world-wide. They mostly prefer
wooded districts, climbing trees, assisted by the short and partly
prehensile tail. Some are semiaquatic. All are rapacious, and feed by
preference on warm-blooded creatures.
The family is divided into two subfamilies, Pythoninæ and Boinæ, but
the difference between them is confined mainly to certain bones in the
skull. The pythons belong entirely to the tropics of the Old World,
except a single species in southern Mexico; and number about twenty
species. The Boinæ are chiefly American. None is venomous.
A famous python is the six-foot, tree-dwelling carpet snake of
Australia, black, beautifully marked with a pattern of yellow dots.
A very large species is the reticulated python of Indo-China and the
Malayan region, having an arrangement of dark lozenges on a lighter
ground. India has a similar species, reaching a length of thirty
feet, marked with reddish brown patches on a yellowish ground. This
(_Python molurus_) is the one most often seen in zoölogical collections
on account of its hardiness; but it is a savage creature, almost
untamable. Like others of these big serpents it is able to make very
long fasts; indeed their life, in this respect, seems to consist of
gorges, followed by long periods--sometimes several months--of fasting
and repose, entirely voluntary. It appears from observation of captive
specimens that they have individual preferences for a certain kind of
food, and perhaps wait for it; thus one in the Jardin des Plantes,
Paris, refused various toothsome animals for months until a goose was
offered, which it seized hungrily, and then sulked through long weeks
until another goose was given.
Africa has two pythons, one (_P. regius_) confined to West Africa, the
other (_P. sebæ_), common from the Sudan to the Cape. "The latter,"
William C. Scully says, "is the largest of African snakes, occasionally
attaining a length of more than twenty feet, with a circumference of
eighteen inches. One is recorded of twenty-five feet. It principally
frequents rocky chasms in moist, warm forests. It is not dangerous to
man, being quite nonvenomous, but it will fight fiercely if attacked,
and the long, sharp, teeth may inflict a severe bite. The python
usually preys upon small animals, such as minor antelopes, monkeys,
conies, and birds. Sometimes this snake coils itself at the bottom of
a stream and lies with its nose just emerging. When a small buck comes
to drink, the snake seizes it by the nose, the recurved teeth taking
an inextricable grip. After the buck has been drowned the python coils
itself around the body and crushes it for convenience in the process of
swallowing.... The python does not regard the horns, which sometimes
may be seen sticking out through the abdomen. These wounds quickly
heal, the snake apparently being none the worse for the perforations.
"So far as I know the python is the only snake which incubates its
eggs. Such, numbering from thirty to fifty at a brood, and weighing
about five and a half ounces each, are usually laid in a deep rock
crevice or in the deserted burrow of an ant bear or hyena. The mother
coils herself over and around them."
Let us turn now to the boas. Popularly the whole tribe is frequently
spoken of as "boa constrictors," but that is the scientific name of
only one among several species, the _Boa constrictor_ of the West
Indies and tropical South America. It is the one most common and best
known, and, as it is easily tamed, is the one often seen in the hands
of performers with serpents in circuses, and exhibited in menageries.
In many places in South America the natives, according to Leo Miller,
keep them running at large about their huts to catch rats. In forested
regions they spend most of their time in trees, but in an open country
lie about on the ground, retreating when alarmed into some hole, as of
a viscacha--their favorite prey on the plains.
Far greater and much more dreaded by the natives is the great water
boa, or anaconda (_B. murinus_), of the Amazonian region, which is the
longest of American snakes, and the worst foe of such river-loving
creatures as capybaras and iguanas. The color scheme of the anaconda
is greenish yellow above, with a single, or two alternating series,
of large, blackish transverse spots, and one or two lateral series of
blackish eyespots with white centers. The lower parts are whitish,
spotted with black. The anaconda is very aquatic, and is usually found
submerged close to the banks of the river, on the lookout for its prey.
Although mammals and crocodiles are occasionally eaten by this snake,
it prefers birds, these being constricted and eaten under water. Only
a single instance of an anaconda having attacked a man is on record.
Although it grows to a length of over thirty feet, it is sexually
mature when about half that length.
Various very slender and agile species, the tree boas, belong to
the tropical American forests, one of which is called the "rainbow"
boa because of its marvelous iridescence in the sunlight. Another
large species inhabits Central America and Mexico; and two small,
brown secretive snakes, the "rubber" boas, more commonly known as
"double-enders," because their blunt tails closely resemble their
heads, are found in California and northward to British Columbia. The
remainder of the family are scattered from Africa to the South Sea
Islands.
ORDINARY SNAKES (COLUBRIDÆ)
We now come to the family Colubridæ, which embraces nine-tenths of all
the modern serpents of the world. The more hardy species are to be
found north to about the summer isotherm of 41 degrees; and snakes are
absent only from some of the South Pacific Islands, New Zealand and
Ireland; Ireland never had any, despite the St. Patrick legend.
The best arrangement of the Colubridæ is that by Boulenger, who,
adopting Duméril's terms, has divided them into three series according
to the character of the teeth.
1. _Aglypha_--All the teeth solid and not grooved. Harmless, that is,
not venomous.
2. _Opisthoglypha_--One or more of the posterior maxillary teeth
grooved. Mostly poisonous; a few tropical species.
3. _Proteroglypha_--Anterior maxillary teeth grooved or tubular.
Deadly poisonous; cobras, coral snakes, etc.
The immense family Colubridæ is divided into several subfamilies,
the first and most extensive of which is the Colubrinæ, in which are
associated all the "harmless" snakes in the world except the boas
and pythons. None exceeds twelve feet long, and most of them are
much smaller. Nearly all lay eggs, but some bring forth large broods
of living young, among which are our water snakes, and the striped
"garter" and "ribbon" snakes so numerous in our meadows and gardens.
These striped snakes (Eutainia) exist in a great number of "species" or
varieties most confusingly varied in coloring, some having no stripes
whatever. They are very hardy, living far toward the north in Canada,
and are the last to go into hibernation and the first to reappear in
spring. For this winter sleep they burrow deeply into soft soil, or
where rocky places exist, seek deep crevices.
The water snakes of the genus Tropidonotus follow, with many
representatives in all temperate countries, one of which is the
"common grass snake" of England--the only serpent in Great Britain
except the viper and a rare little burrower. Ten species, with several
varieties, are credited to the United States, some of which are ringed
with irregular or broken bands of blackish on gray, others obscurely
blotched, and some black or brown with red bellies. They are the
ugliest of all our snakes both in appearance and in vicious temper;
and are of no service to mankind, for their food consists entirely of
fishes, frogs, toads, etc., obtained in or near the water. They live
altogether in rivers, ponds and swamps; and by their dark bodies, flat
heads, and keeled scales so resemble moccasins whose fierce, repellent
attitudes they imitate, that in the South they are almost as much
feared; hence it is well to note the differences. The harmless water
snake is more slender than the deadly moccasin and may be told by the
red spots on the abdomen; the undersurface of the poisonous snake is
straw color, with black or gray spots on younger individuals, but has
no red spots. The water snake has the plates on the underside of the
tail in two rows, the moccasin in a single row. These snakes are agile
swimmers and are able to spend a long time in hiding under water. They
produce their young alive in broods of twenty-five to fifty, and they
are as pugnacious as their elders.
Various small, ground-keeping snakes lead to another conspicuous
American group, the racers and black snakes of the genera Spilotes
and Zamenis, of which species and near relatives are numerous in
Europe and Asia, a Malayan example growing to a length of ten or more
feet--probably the longest of colubrines. Three different "black
snakes" are known among us. The largest is the "gopher snake" or
"indigo snake" of the sandy parts of the southeastern States, which
may approach eight feet in length, and it is a variety of the still
larger yellow "rat snake" or "cribo" of the tropics, which is protected
about villages and houses as a good-natured exterminator of vermin.
Our variety has a useful breadth of taste and lack of choler, and its
haste to escape into a gopher turtle's hole when a man appears gives
it one of its names, while its glossy, blue-black color, relieved only
by a reddish chin and throat, accounts for the other. They are real
pets, showing no fear and offering no harm; the closely related "rat
snakes" of India, on the other hand, although similarly protected as
ratters, are described as diabolical in temper, and thus usually remain
untamable. To some extent in the South, but principally in the Northern
States east of the plains, the commonest black snake is the "black
racer," which west of the Mississippi, instead of being pure satiny
black, with white chin and throat, appears in a bluish green hue,
often with yellowish belly, and is known as "blue racer." Third, we
have the less numerous and larger "pilot," whose scales are noticeably
keeled and have each a touch of white. Raymond L. Ditmars takes great
pains to relieve these snakes of various calumnies, as that they hunt
for rattlesnakes and copperheads (whence the name "pilot"), as that
they "constrict" their prey, as that they "fascinate" anything, and as
that they maliciously attack human beings--on the contrary, they make
frantic efforts to get away the instant their fears are aroused, and
few things on earth can make better speed than this black rocket. If
cornered, however, it will turn on the enemy, rear a third or more
of its length, and strike repeatedly with a force and rapidity hard
to avoid. Yet both the common and the indigo species quickly become
docile and show signs of recognition and partiality toward their human
friends. The long, slender "coachwhip snake" of the South and the
equally thin and swift striped "racer" of the Pacific coast are allied
species.
The genus Coluber, to which belongs the famous Æsculap snake of central
Europe, is represented among us by a series of large and gayly colored
species. One is the yellowish, brown-blotched fox snake of the prairie
States, which is a ground keeper and a great hunter. In search of
rats and mice it often haunts haystacks and barns where it should be
welcome. "One snake is worth a dozen traps, for the reptile prowls into
the burrows and nests of rats and mice and eats the entire brood."
Similar in size (six feet) and habits is the brilliant red-and-crimson
corn snake of the Southern States, which is a great mouser and also
an agile climber after nests of birds, whose eggs and young it likes.
Another, even larger, coluber of the South is the four-striped chicken
snake, useful in its pursuit of small rodents, but, like the pilot
black snake, with too great a fondness for hen's eggs and young poultry
to be liked by farmers.
The big, gray, blustering "bull snakes" of the southern and western
parts of the Union take their name from their habit of emitting a loud
and prolonged hiss when annoyed. They keep on, and under, the ground
in sandy regions, feed on small mammals and birds, and are powerful
constrictors; they are also noted for morose and savage dispositions.
Next to these repulsive reptiles come in classification the beautiful
and gentle green snakes--slender little creatures that hunt for
caterpillars and various insects through the foliage of bushes, among
which their gracefully festooned length is hardly visible. South
America has another group of very long and slender insect eaters and
nest robbers known as "tree snakes," whose habits are similar but on a
larger scale, and which have a wonderful power of riding securely on
the branches, no matter how violently they are waved by the wind.
Passing over a number of small, smooth-scaled serpents, of which
the pretty ringneck is an example, we come to the important genus
Ophiobolus, which contains the king snakes, milk or house snakes, coral
snakes and others, represented in the Old World by the genus Coronella.
They vary in size from fourteen inches to six feet, and in color from
gray with dark blotches to a ringed pattern of red, black, and yellow,
often of brilliant beauty; but there is much individual variation.
The king snake might easily furnish material for a long chapter. Its
name follows from its known disposition to pick a quarrel and fight
with any serpent it meets, big or little; and quite independent of
whether it is hungry, for it is as fond of eating its own kind as it
is of lizards, toads, mice, birds and anything else that comes in its
way on the ground, for it is not much of a climber. Our books are full
of incidents of its destruction of poisonous species, and the popular
belief is that it hunts for, and relentlessly pursues rattlesnakes,
copperheads, etc., but the authorities assure us this is not so.
If it accidentally encounters a rattler or moccasin, it kills, and
perhaps eats it; but it does the same with any other serpent. It is an
exceedingly quick and powerful constrictor, and careless of bites, for
it is entirely immune to venom. Captive specimens have been repeatedly
hypodermically injected with the poison of all sorts of American
venomous serpents, as well as bitten by them, and have shown little
if any effect. But wounds enrage it. Winding its lithe body round and
round the doomed creature, until every part of the shining length is
engaged, it tightens with such strength that the victim is benumbed,
unable to bite and quickly strangled. Nevertheless these snakes submit
easily to confinement and speedily grow perfectly gentle and friendly.
The common northern representative of the genus is the house snake or
milk snake--names given to several other species; it is also known as
"checkered adder," because of the general resemblance of its blotched
form to the dreaded copperhead. It is gray above, with a series of
large, chestnut-brown saddles on the back, smaller blotches alternating
with them along the sides; the belly is white, marked boldly with
square black blotches. The pattern and tints vary widely. This snake
is a lover of warmth and a hunter of mice and rats, wild and domestic;
and in search of them it frequents pastures and damp meadows, where
such wild game abounds, comes much about stables and houses, and often
creeps into the rural dairies that are usually close to springs.
Serpents with these inquisitive habits are familiar in all parts of
the world, and from time immemorial have been accused, among other
iniquities, of milking cows and goats, and of drinking and spoiling
milk and cream on the shelves in dairies and cellars. These beliefs
survive among country people to this day, as I found out a few years
ago by an extensive correspondence of inquiry, in which incredibly
absurd statements were made. Of course, well-informed persons know
better. The keepers of reptiles at the New York Zoölogical Park, for
example, find that snakes show no liking for milk. Captive specimens
cannot be induced to drink it unless suffering from great thirst. It
would be a feat beyond physical possibility for a serpent the size
of the largest milk snake to consume enough milk from a cow--if the
reptile should be so inclined--to produce an effect noticeable to the
most minute degree.
We will mention only one other sort of our harmless colubrines--the
"hognose," "puffing adder," "spreading adder," as it is variously
known; but the name hognose is the best. Its genus is Heterodon. Two
species are common all over the eastern half of the United States and
Canada, one an ugly mottled gray, the other black. They are about
two feet in length, thick-bodied, with roughly keeled scales, a flat
head and a pointed, upturned snout--altogether very unhandsome and
forbidding-looking reptiles; and they profit by this in an attempt to
frighten away whatever alarms them, while in reality themselves almost
(sometimes quite) paralyzed by fear.
CORAL SNAKES, COBRAS, AND SEA SNAKES
The flattening of the head and neck practiced by the hognose as a
gesture of readiness to fight, whether true or false in its implication
of ability, is found among several non-poisonous colubrids elsewhere
and indicates their approach in kinship to the "hooded" cobras that
are the foremost representatives of the venom-bearing members of
the Colubridæ. It will be recalled that we have been sketching the
"harmless" section (Aglypha), and have now to take up the two remaining
"dangerous" sections of the Colubridæ, the Opisthoglypha and the
Proteroglypha.
The principal tooth-bearing bone in a serpent's mouth is the forward
half of the upper jaw, termed the maxillary. The maxillary of each side
is connected with its fellow by a small, single bone in front (the
premaxillary) and otherwise is connected with the loosely connected
bones of the skull by those elastic cartilages that enable the mouth to
expand and take in prey of a size more than equal to the snake's head
when the mouth is shut. In the serpents that do not possess a poisoning
apparatus the teeth on the maxillaries are alike in size, and solid;
but in the venomous kinds some of the teeth are enlarged and grooved or
channeled to conduct a flow of poison into the wound made by biting.
This is the case with the poison-bearing sections of the Colubridæ
mentioned above, and their difference is in the relative position of
the poison-conducting teeth or "fangs" on the maxillaries.
In the Opisthoglyphs these teeth are situated near the posterior end
of the maxillary, and are grooved on the rear side, where they receive
the poisonous fluid from a sac in the cheek. The greater number of
species of this group are residents of the Old World, although we have
several representatives along our Mexican border, and more southward,
especially in the tropics. Most of them are little dangerous to
mankind, as it is difficult for them to inflict a wound by "striking."
They first seize their prey and then use their rather short fangs. The
poison has a paralyzing effect, reducing the victim to helplessness.
Some of these snakes must be regarded as decidedly dangerous, but
fortunately all the American species may be quickly recognized by the
peculiar marking on their heads, which has given the name "jew's-harp
snake" to a common species of Arizona. It is believed that the vipers
are an offshoot of an opisthoglyph ancestry, in spite of the forward
position of their fangs.
In the Proteroglypha, on the contrary, the poisoning teeth, in all
cases small, are situated near the front of the maxillaries, and they
are much more dangerous reptiles, for they include the coral snakes and
cobras (Elapinæ) and the sea snakes (Homalopsinæ), which are able to
strike their teeth into anything they successfully attack.
The coral snakes (genus Elaps) derive their name from the broad bands
of coral-red that encircle their bodies in most species, with narrow
rings of black and yellow between. These brilliant colors, combined
with the luster of the smooth scales, make them among the most
beautiful of serpents, and a common species of our Southern States is
called the harlequin. The genus is exclusively American, and nearly
all belong to the tropics, where the largest become five feet long,
and their bite is deadly to man. They keep to the ground, and much of
the time under it, and are cannibalistic in their diet. The body is
slender and cylindrical, the head small, and the eyes like beads. They
are indocile, quick-tempered, and very dangerous to handle, despite
the fact that they do not always resist being disturbed. Hence the
widely prevalent opinion that they are harmless is a perilous delusion
fostered by the fact that certain innocuous southern serpents closely
mimic the coral snakes in size and colors. It should be learned and
remembered, especially by visitors to winter resorts in Florida, that
the poisonous ones (Elaps) have the black rings bordered on each side
by the yellow ones, while in the harmless species the yellow rings
are bordered by the black; also, in the coral snakes the bands of
color completely encircle the body, but do not in the other kind. A
very elaborate illustrated account of the coral snake and its poison
apparatus, methods and serious effects, was given by Stejneger in the
"Annual Report of the United States National Museum," for 1893, Part II.
The remainder of the elapine serpents (about 125 species) belong to
Africa and the Orient. Typical of them are the cobras of the genus
Naja, of which the species (_Naja tripudians_) met with from Turkestan
to southern China and the Malay islands, and named by Portuguese
explorers "cobra de capello" (hooded snake), is world-famous. Several
species inhabit Africa and differ little from the Indian cobras, but
are equally deadly. The fangs in all this group are small and are fixed
in the extreme front of the upper jaw, not being erectile like the long
fangs of the rattlesnakes and vipers. Cobras vary much in coloration,
and Mr. Scully reports that he has killed South African specimens of
light yellow, jet black and all intermediate hues.
The cobra is a fierce fighter and, when reared up, with expanded hood,
looks very formidable. Anterior to the head the ribs lengthen and
then gradually shorten to normal dimensions. These lengthened ribs,
about twenty in number, lie, when the snake is quiescent, more or less
laterally along the spine. But when the snake becomes excited, the
neck bends and the ribs spring out at right angles. Over them the loose
folds of skin expand umbrella fashion. When much enraged, the cobra
spits drops of venom at its enemy. These are propelled a distance of
about four feet.
The cobra is found all over South Africa, but is especially plentiful
in the dry, sandy deserts northwest of the Cape. There extensive
colonies of large mice abound, patches of ground being thickly
honeycombed with burrows. In these the cobras dwell--apparently, as in
the case of the puff adders, on the best of terms with their hosts,
upon whom they principally feed, reminding one of the tenancy by the
Western rattlesnake of prairie-dog "towns."
A close relative of the cobra is the ringhals (i. e., ringneck), known
as the "spitting snake," the explanation of which Mr. Scully furnishes
from personal experience thus:
"The ringhals, when excited, exudes a quantity of venom, which drips
down the fangs and lodges behind the abrupt, horny, lower lip. Upon
this the angry snake directs a blast of air through its extensible
windpipe, with the effect that a jet of fine venom spray is emitted
toward an enemy. This jet may reach a height of six feet. That the eyes
are aimed at I have proved by experiment. If the poison reaches them
blindness, which may be permanent, results. The bite of the ringhals is
highly venomous, but the snake appears to prefer disabling its enemy by
means of the spray of venom."
The most novel and interesting of Mr. Scully's contributions to
African herpetology, however, is his story of the mamba (_Dendraspis
angusticeps_), which he calls "the head of the family." It is the
longest venomous snake in the world, probably running to fifteen feet
in exceptional cases, but is slender and primarily a tree snake. This
naturalist declares it to be the most dangerous of all snakes, as it
is highly aggressive at times and its speed is quite extraordinary.
If disturbed during the pairing season, the mamba attacks without
hesitation; and if at any time one happens to get between the mamba
and its dwelling, the snake rushes straight for its objective and, in
passing, strikes swift as lightning at the intruder. It progresses in
a series of bounds, suggestive of the successive uncoilings of a steel
spring. There are two varieties, one colored a vivid grass-green, the
other steely black, both so dreaded that the news that a large mamba
has been seen will cause the vicinity to be shunned--perhaps for months.
"The mamba has the habit of lying coiled among the branches adjacent to
a footpath in a forest. Woe to the passing wayfarer in such a case! If
he touch a twig, and thus impart the least tremor to the snake's lair,
a lightning-swift stroke upon face, neck, or arm seals his doom. Such
a stroke may be delivered either forward or sideways, with equal speed
and effectiveness."
The most feared of the cobra tribe in India and eastward is the king
cobra, or hamadryad, which often exceeds a dozen feet in length and
is "the largest, boldest and most dangerous of all venomous snakes,"
in Boulenger's opinion, "for when disturbed it does not content
itself with merely sitting up and expanding its hood, but will almost
invariably attack." Fortunately it is not numerous anywhere in its
range from the Himalayas to the Far East; and it is useful in that it
feeds exclusively on snakes, small pythons, kraits, rat snakes, and
the common cobra. Its bite will kill a man in an hour or two; and it is
recorded that an elephant bitten by one died in three hours.
Nearly all the serpents of Australia belong to Elapinæ, and are
exceedingly dangerous. Among them are the "black snakes," the females
of which are called "brown adders"; the "tiger," so called from
its colors; and most dreaded of all, the "death adder," which is
distinguished by a peculiar tail end, and by the fact that the head is
made distinct from the body by a narrow neck, giving it a viperlike
appearance. When disturbed it flattens out the whole body.
A few words about the sea snakes will close our account of the
poison-bearing colubrids. These are set apart in the subfamily
Homalopsinæ, on account of the structure of the tail, which is
flattened vertically into a combination of swimming organ and rudder,
for they live in the estuaries of Oriental rivers, and go far out to
sea in their search for food; and are to be met with from the Persian
Gulf to Polynesia and Japan. All are very poisonous, feed mainly
on fishes and produce living young; and all are clothed in varied
and brilliant colors. Living in the sea, or in tidal inlets, their
movements in the clear blue water are agile and elegant; and in the Bay
of Bengal they are sometimes seen congregating in large shoals.
We turn now to the last and most advanced family of serpents, the
vipers, rattlesnakes, moccasins, copperheads, and so forth (Viperidæ).
VIPERS, MOCCASINS AND RATTLESNAKES
"Viper" is an old French-Latin word, meaning "bearing living young,"
which was noted as distinctive from the egg-laying habit of other
snakes, and peculiar to the single species that the people of southern
Europe knew--the small _Vipera verus_, or asp, from which the large
and widespread family derives its name. The vipers differ from
the colubrids in important particulars. Their bodies are thick in
proportion to their length, which rarely exceeds six feet, and this and
their weight make them unable to run rapidly or (with one exception)
to climb trees. The sturdy body narrows into a slender neck supporting
a distinct head, given a flattened, triangular form by the expansion
of the hind head on each side to accommodate the great poison sacs
with which these snakes are provided. The maxillary is a stout bone
in the fore part of the upper jaw, and carries on each side a long,
backward-curved fang, which is tubular and is connected at its root
with the extremity of a duct from the poison sac. When the serpent's
mouth is closed, or it is swallowing anything, these fangs, which in
a large snake may be an inch and a half long, lie back in a fold of
the flesh out of the way; but when the mouth is widely opened they
spring forward, and when the head is darted forward to strike a prey
or an enemy, they are driven down into its flesh and the venom spurts
through them into the wound, with benumbing and deadly effect. They are
frequently broken or dragged out, and then new ones arise from behind
to replace them. The eye is large, dull, and catlike in its pupil; the
scales are strongly keeled and dull in hue in the desert dwellers, but
often gay with colors in intricate patterns in the forest dwellers;
and the short and stumpy tail may end in "rattles," or a horny tip, or
neither. Nearly all give birth to large broods, which are as vicious
at birth as are their mothers. The family has two sections, marked by
the absence in the first, and the presence in the second section, of a
deep pit in the broad scale on the head between the nostril and the eye.
The original little "viper" of Europe and Asia is more a nuisance than
a peril, for it is rarely more than a foot long, and its bite would be
fatal only to a small child. A larger species, the sand viper, ranges
from Italy to Armenia. India, Burma and Siam, however, have a member
of this group which is pronounced by Sir J. Fayrer as next to the
cobra the most dangerous serpent of the East--the daboia, or Russell's
viper. It is nocturnal, not aggressive, and makes a loud hissing when
anyone comes near it, so that it does not cause as many human deaths
as it might; but frequently kills grazing cattle by biting them on the
nose. The greatest and worst of these snakes belong to Africa, where
the northern deserts are infested with two greatly dreaded species--the
horned and the saw vipers. The former has two sharp hornlike
protuberances above the eyes, and Canon Tristram writes that its usual
habit is to coil itself on the sand, where it basks in the impress of
a camel's footmark, and thence suddenly to dart out on any passing
animal. Horses as well as men are in constant terror of it, for it will
attack without any provocation.
The worst of the African vipers, nevertheless, is the puff adder, which
ranges over the whole continent, and may grow to a length of six feet,
with a girth equal to a man's thigh.
"The coloration of the puff adder," Mr. Scully writes, "is in
groundwork a series of delicate browns, with more or less regular
curved transverse patches darkening to black and edged with vivid
yellow. Its scales are keeled; its short tail tapers suddenly to a
point. It is a sluggish creature, incapable of swift progression. When
disturbed, it flattens itself to the ground, the air expressed in the
process causing the warning hiss which has saved many a life. But if
the foot of the intruder touch it, or even tread in its immediate
vicinity, the puff adder lunges either forward or sideways, with
a swiftness that the human eye cannot follow, and, having buried
its fangs deep in the flesh, holds on like a bulldog, forcing two
streams of venom into the tissues. The expression of this snake--its
square muzzle and glaring, lidless eyes with vertical pupils--the
extraordinary gape of the jaws and the huge, erected fangs, form what
is probably one of the most fiendishly menacing combinations in nature.
Nevertheless, apart from its head, the puff adder is a creature of
great beauty. The 'night adder' (_Causus rhombeatus_) is much dreaded
on account of its habit of lying at night in pathways and failing to
move out of one's way. This snake is one of the exceptions to the
rule of the viper class, in that it is not viviparous. It has another
remarkable peculiarity: the poison glands, instead of lying compactly
embedded in the maxillary muscles above the angle of the jaw, are much
elongated, and lie one on each side of the spine."
All the pit vipers are American except a few species in southern Asia,
some of which are arboreal in habit and have red prehensile tails. Our
American species fall into two genera: Ancistrodon, the moccasins (no
rattles), and Crotalus, the rattlesnakes.
The "upland moccasin" of the South is the "pilot" or "copperhead" of
the North, where it still exists in forested and rocky districts from
Connecticut and the Great Lakes to Texas, and is particularly abundant
in the rough hills beside the Hudson River, and thence southward along
the Alleghenies. Its general hue is yellowish brown, becoming chestnut
or coppery red on the head and end of the tail, which terminates in a
hard point. Along the back, meeting irregularly on the midline, are
chestnut-hued blotches that divide on the sides, forming inverted Y's;
the belly is yellowish with distinct black blotches, leaving the throat
clear. After one has seen a copperhead he is not likely to confuse
it with the milk snake or any other. Its haunts and habits are much
the same as those of the eastern rattlesnakes, nor do I consider it
any more aggressive in spite of a rather over-blackened reputation,
nor so deadly in the effects of its weaker venom. It is bad enough,
however, and should be killed on sight wherever children or pet dogs
are likely to meet with it. This upland moccasin is named in science
_Ancistrodon contortrix_; its brother species, the water moccasin, is
_A. piscivorus_.
The moccasin is a larger, heavier snake than the copperhead, and a
dweller in the sluggish rivers and swamps of the Gulf States and
northward to North Carolina and Kentucky. The moccasins commonly lie
on the branches of bushes at the edge of the water; and if escape from
danger be possible they quickly drop into the water and swim away
beneath it to some hiding place. If suddenly surprised they coil and
open the mouth widely toward the intruder, showing its white interior
that has given them the name "cotton mouth" among the darkies, who
fear them greatly, especially as they work in the rice fields. Mexico
has a similar species.
Closely allied to the copperhead and moccasins are two very dreadful
snakes of the American tropics--the "fer-de-lance" of the French
islands of the West Indies, and the "bushmaster" of Brazil. The former
reaches a length of six feet, and the bushmaster, or surukuku, as the
Indians name it, to twice that length, thus rivaling the great viper of
India. Both have all the ferocity and power of their race exaggerated
to the limit, and hundreds of human lives are sacrificed to them every
year. Every traveler has thrilling tales about them. Leo Miller, a
cool-headed man of science, takes very seriously the fear this creature
inspires. He reminds us that a bushmaster ten feet long has fangs an
inch and a half long, and injects nearly a tablespoonful of poison at a
single thrust. A man would survive such a dose but a few minutes. When
once a bushmaster fell from a tree branch into his canoe everybody in
it sprang overboard, and some narrowly escaped drowning. Such deadly
creatures would make the tropical world unendurable were it not that
most of the time they are sluggish and peaceful; but a little fright,
or a protective instinct in regard to their eggs, sets them off with
the suddenness of a released spring.
In taking up the rattlesnakes we have a sure guide in Dr. Leonhard
Stejneger's "Report," describing all the species of North America (the
group Crotalinæ is confined to this continent, Central America, and
a single species in South America). The special peculiarity of the
group is the queer "rattle" (crotalus) at the end of the tail. This
consists of a series of loosely connected, somewhat cone-shaped, horny
capsules, each of which originally covered the terminal vertebra of
the tail. On sloughing the skin this covering remains, but is soon
pushed away by the new capsule formed beneath, and partly within it,
which in turn is pushed out and replaced by a third, and so on, until
sometimes a dozen remain linked together; and when the serpent vibrates
its tail, as most snakes do when excited, they rattle against one
another, the tone of the "music" rising as the excitement, and speed
of vibration, increases. The sloughing is irregular as to frequency,
however, especially in young individuals, and may not always produce an
addition to the rattle, and the appendage itself may be broken, so that
the number of pieces, or buttons, in the rattle is not a trustworthy
measure of the age of the snake.
The smallest of the crotalids are the ground rattlers (genus
Sistrurus), of which we have two species, and there is one in Mexico.
The northern kind, widely known by its Indian name "massasauga," ranges
from eastern Pennsylvania and Ontario to northern Minnesota and Kansas,
and thence to Texas. The Southern States have a second species commonly
called "ground rattler." Both are grayish brown with chestnut or darker
dorsal blotches, and are inhabitants of the prairies, with their swamps
and marshes. The largest do not exceed forty inches, and their bite is
correspondingly weak in effect.
The remainder of the rattlesnakes belong to the genus Crotalus.
The commonly seen species of the region east of the dry plains was
named _Crotalus horridus_ by Linnæus, and this is one of the few
instances in which his name has defied change by the systemists. It
formerly was to be found as far east as central Massachusetts, but
there, as elsewhere, civilization has killed it off, so that now it
survives only in the Appalachian glens, and in thinly settled tracts
farther west and south. Its general color above is yellow-brown, below
nearly white; and the body is banded with blackish, the bands taking a
zigzag form behind the neck, and the tail is black. It rarely exceeds a
yard in length, and is, as a rule, timid and nonaggressive; but a good
deal remains to be learned about its habits and breeding.
Far more formidable than this is the diamond-back (_C. adamanteus_) of
the low, coastal region from North Carolina to the lower Mississippi
River and throughout Florida, where it is far more common than is
desirable. This rattler may exceed eight feet in length, and has
corresponding power of harm. It is partial to the neighborhood of
water, where its ground-running prey is most numerous; hence it is
frequently spoken of as the "water rattlesnake," to distinguish it
from the banded species, or "timber rattlesnake" of the same region,
which is more habituated to forested districts, with rocks. A race of
_C. horridus_, usually large and vicious, exists in the coast swamps,
and is locally called the "canebrake rattler." The diamond back itself
takes its name from the lozenge-shaped patches of dark color formed on
its upper surface by the crossing of diagonal narrow bands of bright
yellow on a greenish gray ground. The literature relating to this
terrifying snake would fill hundreds of pages. Raymond L. Ditmars of
the New York Zoölogical Park, gives this description:
"Most deadly of the North American poisonous snakes, and ranking in
size with the largest of the tropical venomous serpents of both the
New and the Old World, this huge rattlesnake, with its brilliant and
symmetrical markings, is a beautiful and terrible creature. Ever bold
and alert, ever retaining its wild nature when captive, there is a
certain awe-inspiring grandeur about the coil of this formidable brute;
the glittering black eyes, the slowly waving tongue, and the incessant,
rasping note of the rattle.... The mere vibration of a step throws the
creature upon guard. Taking a deep inhalation, the snake inflates the
rough, scaly body, to the tune of a low, rushing sound of air. Shifting
the coils to uncover the rattle, this is 'sprung' with the abruptness
of an electric bell. There is no hysterical striking, but careful
watching, and if the opportunity to effect a blow with the long fangs
is presented, the result is generally mortal."
[Illustration: THE RATTLESNAKE
(_Crotalus horridus_)
Beside the snake is the skin it has just discarded]
A large and very showy western analogue of the diamond-back, known
by the sinister specific name _atrox_, occurs from central Texas to
California. One of its varieties is red, with darker red markings and
a white tail. The familiar rattlesnake of the plains east of the Rocky
Mountains is _Crotalus confluentus_, which is of moderate size and
dull hue; its mainstay of food is found among the prairie-dog towns.
A similar but smaller species (_C. oregonus_) takes its place west of
the Rockies, from British Columbia to southern California. The "tiger"
rattlesnake, yellow barred with black; the "horned" rattler, which,
like the Egyptian horned viper, has a trick of advancing sidewise, and
consequently has the popular name "sidewinder"; and the slender green
rattlesnake, are small species of the deserts along the Mexican border.